Cet épisode de La Poudre a été publié en français le 16 novembre 2017. Pour l’écouter, remontez dans les archives ou cliquez ici : 🇫🇷.

In this episode, Sophie Fontanel recalls her childhood in the 16th district of Paris and the feeling of being socially upgraded (05:09), the impact of her grandparents fleeing the Armenian genocide on her childhood (10:45), the rape she suffered during her teenage years that disrupted her sex life forever (18:55), her years spent working in women’s magazine without ever spreading its diktats (31:24), and how she feels like she doesn’t relate to any particular sexual orientation (37:36). Sophie reads an extract of her book “Grandir” which means « Growing up » and talks about her mother (45:27), as well as the double standards that accompany women and men’s old age (50:42) and her encounter with her uterus (58:33). 

Sophie Fontanel is a writer, a journalist and a French influencer born in Paris in 1962. Her latest novel, « Une apparition » (2017), relates her experience as she suddenly decided to stop dying her hair. Sophie Fontanel is a prolific author who wrote 15 novels, including « The Art of Sleeping Alone », a book on sexual abstinence sold worldwide at more than 150 000 copies and featured in the New York Times. She has more than 130 000 followers on Instagram, with whom she loves to share posts staging herself. After graduating in Literature, Sophie Fontanel wrote for numerous prestigious French medias such as Les Matins de Paris before becoming a chief editor at Cosmopolitan’s French edition. She published her first novel in 1995, « Sacré Paul », which was awarded a prize by the Best First Novel in France. She then became a TV host on « Nulle part ailleurs », a show produced by Canal +. This experience inspired her the subject of her second novel, « Le plus jeune métier du monde », (which means the youngest profession on earth) in 1999. She went on and started working at ELLE magazine as an international reporter and then as Fashion editor-in-chief until April the 1st 2015. Nowadays, she writes a weekly column for Le Nouvel Observateur untitled « La mode pour tous », which means « Fashion for everyone ». 

Executive producer : Nouvelles Écoutes

Production and signature tune : Aurore Meyer-Mahieu

English voice-over : Sara Verhagen 

Production assistant : Zisla Tortello

Recording and mixing : L’Arrière Boutique Studio